


Camping trips

by lilmissmaya



Series: Fuss and Bother [5]
Category: Moominvalley (Cartoon 2019), Mumintroll | Moomins Series - Tove Jansson, 楽しいムーミン一家 | Moomin (Anime 1990)
Genre: Gen, M/M, Maybe - Freeform, Summer, calm, deaf snufkin, fluff?, they will have a nice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-20
Updated: 2019-07-02
Packaged: 2020-05-15 14:48:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19297924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilmissmaya/pseuds/lilmissmaya
Summary: Moomin and Snufkin are going to have a nice, peaceful summer. no monsters, no falling into rivers.well, unless someone decides they need to have a wedding ceremony without consulting them...





	1. Chapter 1

“The man who goes afoot, prepares to camp anywhere and in any weather, is the most independent fellow on earth. He can follow his bent, obey the whim of the hour, do what he pleases, whenever he pleases, without deference to anybody.”  
-Horace Kephart, Camping and Woodcraft 

The past year has been an eventful one for Moomin and Snufkin. From an illness that brought Snufkin back in the middle of the previous winter and damaging his hearing, to building a cottage, to nearly burning down said cottage to get rid of a wechug- moomin was hoping this spring and summer would be full of delightful lazing around. To fish, to paint the inside of the house again. Of course, if you are reading this story, you have probably read the previous episodes. If you haven’t, well, go back and read up. We’ll still be here when you’re done, it shouldn’t take too long. Groke knows how long it will take for the author to finish this chapter. 

Did you read them? Good, we better move on. The author is threatening me again with writing me out. We should carry on then, before she gets too tetchy. 

After the events of the last episode, Moomin and Snufkin ended up spending the rest of the winter back in moomin’s old bedroom, back in the Moomin house. Joxter spent his time… somewhere. He wasn’t specific, but he was rather pleased with himself by the time the family woke up for spring. They repainted the living room of the cottage blue, and Joxter went back to sleeping in the shade tree out front. 

Now, snufkin thought being stuck in one place around so many people would be torture. It helped that the stop they’d built their cottage was a ways from most people to discourage casual dropping-in. It also helped that he couldn’t hear most things, so he’d pretend to not be able to read lips as well as he did, and avoided many unwanted conversations that way. There was a forest around the cottage to explore, a good stream down hill for fishing, and the beach not too far from that. And he had to admit- a mattress was nice to sleep on every night. And moomin even better to wake up to every morning. 

“Those two are boring since they got married.” Little My grumbled over breakfast. The two in question, snufkin and moomin, were wandering off hand in paw to do whatever they were going to do for the day.

“They aren’t married.” snorkmaiden pointed out, “they didn’t have a wedding.”

“They sure act like they are married.” she pondered. Snufkin would Hate a wedding ceremony. Having to dress up. Socializing. Being the center of attention. (she suspected strongly that he was not nearly as deaf as he acted like he was. It annoyed her that she didn’t think of it first.) “We could throw them one.”

“That’s not….” snorkmaiden wavered, liking the idea of throwing a party. Decorations, fancy food. A fancy veil. “We can’t just throw a surprise wedding ceremony for them.” 

“Snufkin wouldn’t show up if we told him. And moomin can’t keep a secret for more than fifteen seconds.”

“That is true… oh, who would wear the veil though…” she turned yellow in delight, considering all the flowers she could gather, deciding that both of them needed veils and crowns of flowers. Matching waistcoats. Oh wouldn’t snufkin look nice in an embroidered shirt...

“That’s not how it works, you can’t do that.” The Snork shrunk under the girls’ glares. 

“It’s like they are already married.” Snorkmaiden justified herself. “We’re just throwing them a party. Moomin liked the housewarming party we threw last year.”

“But Snufkin…” he trailed off, Little My’s expression promised violence. 

And so, whether or not snufkin and moomin knew it or wanted it, they were getting married.


	2. Chapter 2

Snufkin was very glad moomin had offered to go camping with him. Knowing full well he would be fine on his own was not the same as his brain putting off danger alarms at every little thing. It wasn’t the perfect scenario, but still. Moomin was not a bad travel companion, and maybe it would help to quiet his head for a little while. That feeling of suffocation around groups of people who wanted to talk to him was enough- to feel like that when alone in his favorite place was worse. 

There was another reason he was glad moomin came with him. It’d been a year, but he still didn’t feel as strong as he did before his illness. He winded easily, his endurance didn’t last. He tried to blame being out of shape, and maybe he should have asked someone-

An hour in, he called for a rest break. It was easy going, but he made the excuse that they were in no rush. Moomin gave him a strange look and a paw on the shoulder… but didn’t ask. Yet. Oh this was a mistake. 

The air became cooler as the elevation became higher, and the tighter his chest got. Anxiety, his lungs? One feeding on the other? He ended up falling behind moomin, before having to stop to catch his breath. 

He looked up to see moomin in front of him, worry all over his long face. 

“What’s wrong?” snufkin shook his head. Moomin was quiet for a long moment. “I’ll make coffee.”

Moomin had learned how to build fires pretty well, and their coffee pot was happily perking away in no time. By the time it was ready, he could take a full breath, though his chest was sore. The warmth from the coffee helped. 

Moomin kept quiet for a while, too worried to enjoy the fire or the scenery. If he pushed too hard, snufkin would pull away. He was better, he really was, about opening up when something was wrong or he needed something. He was more accepting of comfort. But sometimes he still needed a bit of space before opening up. 

When he seemed to have settled, moomin moved next to him and took his hand in his paw. 

“Better?” snufkin nodded. “What happened?”

“Out of shape.” he mumbled, pulling his hat down and staring at the ground. 

“Its okay.”

“No it’s not. I should be able to do this.” he rubbed his eyes, like he was trying not to cry. “Why can’t I do this?”

“I don’t know.” moomin said, trying to soothe him. He rubbed his back, and he could feel snufkin slowly relax. “Do you want to head back home?”

“No. I want to do this.”

“Then we’ll do it. We’ll just build things up slowly.”

“How about we make camp here.”

“It’s a good spot. I think we’ll make camp here.”

 

They got the tent up, built a bigger fire. They toasted sandwiches over the fire, drank tea, sat under a shared blanket and watched the clouds move over the valley. But as the wind kicked up and distant lightning jumped from cloud to cloud- snufkin buried his face in moomin’s shoulder. Slow, steady breathes. It wasn’t going to hurt him. Slow, steady. Moomin was holding his hand. Then there was a nuzzling on his neck and he forgot all about the storm. 

Later, wrapped up together in the tent while rain pattered down, moomin decided it was time to talk. 

“Why don’t you wander anymore?” he traced random trails on snufkin’s arm. It was tempting to say nothing, to push it off and pretend it was fine. Thing was… it wasn’t fine. And not telling wouldn’t make the fear go away. He wasn’t alone anymore, he’d become attached to moomin. He didn’t have to do anything alone anymore, if he didn’t want to. And… he didn’t want to do it alone anymore.

“I’m….” he hesitated, unsure of how to put it into words. “Afraid. It creeps up on me and suddenly I can’t breathe and I can’t move.” falling into the river and nearly drowning hadn’t helped things, then...

“Oh snufkin.”

“I’ve been trying to push through it, but-”

“What can I do to help?” his paw cupped his face.

“You’re helping right now. Pushing me to do this, I think. Reminding me it’s fun. I just need to get stronger again.”

“Of course.” and moomin pulled him up against his chest, so that snufkin mostly just felt words rumble. “We’ll do it together.”

 

It was a lovely couple of days with just the two of them, wandering aimlessly among the mountains. There was no purpose, other than picking flowers and herbs, drinking tea. They fished and cooked it over and open fire and ate it with their fingers. The knot of anxiety in snufkin’s chest slowly loosened. It was very nice sleeping out in the open, peeking under rocks and logs to see what was there. And it was made better by having someone to share it with. They didn’t have to talk, but the simple thing of shared experience was… it was new. It was warm.

And then there was the lovely feeling of coming home, with the promise of lazing on the porch after supper was cleaned up. Maybe he would get the guitar out, or they’d listen to his dad lie about some adventure he and moominpappa went on in their youth. There was no rush. 

There was a note on their door, saying to come to the moomin house when they were home. There was a promise of cake, which got moomin’s attention.   
“I hope it’s strawberry and cream.” he washed up, getting the worst of burrs and leaves out of his fur. “Mmm, or almond and cherry. Oh! Or a figgy plum cake!”

“All sound good to me.” snufkin agreed, putting on his new shirt. (one sleeve was slightly longer than the other, but who is keeping track, other than certain narrators? Hemming cuffs is hard enough.) he would have liked to spend the evening alone with moomin, but moomin was more social by nature. It was good for both of them, he supposed. 

Plus, there was going to be cake. Momma always baked a good cake. 

In their excitement, they failed to notice how weirdly quiet it was on the path to the house. As if-

And a group of folk burst out of the front door on to the porch. 

“SURPRISE!”

Snufkin turned on his heel, not prepared for a party. Once again, moomin grabbed his shirt.

“There will be cake.” snufkin groaned. He did want the cake. “We’ll stay for cake, then I’ll say you’re tired and we need to go home.”

“You promise?” there was a wave of people coming for them, he couldn’t make out what everyone was saying.

“Yes, I- oh! Snorkmaiden what IS all this?!”

“Your wedding, silly! Over here!”

Snufkin was taken off into the house, stripped, scrubbed and re-dressed in brand new clothes. Brand new, and brightly embroidered. Wedding clothes. He felt ill. 

But he was heartened by the sight of his father huddled in the corner, scrubbed shiny and shaved, with new clothes and a dejected look.

“Did they trick you into coming with the promise of cake, too?”

“Yes.” the joxter grumbled, squirming in his stiff shirt. “And then that horrible woman over there keeps yelling at me if I move.” he pointed to one of the gossiping fillyjooks. “They thought I was going to run off and warn you about the surprise wedding.”

“And were you?”

“You betcha.” he slouched into a sulk. “Look at us.”

“I’m going to be sick.” snufkin tucked his head down, hugging his knees. Thank goodness he couldn’t hear any of it, just a loud buzzing. His father settled by him, he could feel his warmth as he wrapped his arms around him. He couldn’t make out if he said anything, but accepted the comfort the joxter was trying to give him. 

Moomin’s fur was starting to frizz. “You can’t just throw us a surprise wedding!”

“Why not?” snorkmaiden tilted her head. “You two deserve a nice party after how awful last winter was with that horrible beast. Everyone in the valley came!”

“Snufkin needs warning for this kind of thing. He doesn’t like surprise parties.”

“If we told you two, snufkin would have ran off.” Little my said plainly. “After all, this is everything he hates.”

“If you know he hates it, why did you do it?”

“Cause I’m his big sister.” she said with a grin. “What else am I supposed to do?”

“It will be fine, moomin.” snorkmaiden interrupted, putting a veil over his head. “Once snufkin’s all dressed, we’ll get started.”

 

There was a tap on snufkin’s shoulder, he didn’t want to look up. But it was insistent, then tugging on his arm. 

“Come on boy-o, let’s get this over with.”

“I need a drink.” snufkin reluctantly stood up, freezing as the fillyjook women swarmed over to straighten up his shirt and waistcoat, before putting a veil over his head. 

There really was everyone in the valley waiting outside. Joxter had his arm around snufkin’s waist, support or to keep him from dashing off? He’d faced a nightmare winter beast and defeated it and here he was, about to be sick to his stomach. 

But there was moomin, who lit up when he saw snufkin, and he forgot about everyone else. 

Words were said, flower crowns were exchanged, and they kissed. Folks cheered, snufkin wished he could run back to the cottage, but somehow managed with his face shyly hiding in moomin’s shoulder. 

“You look so nice.” moomin told him, once everyone was finished trying to congratulate and talk to them. 

“It’s itchy.” moomin nuzzled his cheek and snufkin fought to not blush. 

“Its true, you do look nice, sweety.” Moominmamma kissed both of them, before handing them generous slices of cake. “I’m sorry we had to surprise you.”

“I probably wouldn’t have shown up otherwise.”

“Exactly.” she kissed his head again. “Congratulations.”

 

So in the end, the most awful thing to happen to snufkin and moomin was an itchy shirt and an evening of forced small talk. Hopefully no one was too disappointed by this. 

What will happen next? No one will ever know for sure, at least, until the author writes it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one ended up being short. I hope you all liked something short and very fluffy for once!

**Author's Note:**

> whelp, at it again. let me know what you think! maybe this time I can write something fluffy without it getting all dark and angsty.
> 
>  
> 
> yeah, I know, not likely to happen.


End file.
